Another year, another deliciously sparkletastic J. Herbin anniversary ink. I like the J. Herbin strategy of releasing one ink at a time—there’s no agonizing decision-making to undertake, simply: here’s this year’s choice. Take it or leave it.

I’ll take it! As if there were ever any question…

This year’s release inaugurates a new J. Herbin ink category, the Jacques Herbin 1798 Ink Collection. Welcome improvements over the 1670 Anniversary ink series include: a wider bottle mouth that you can actually fit pens into, clear color-coded labels on the bottle and the box (as opposed to the 1670 series, whose boxes were labeled with mermaids and french hieroglyphics), and the decorative improvements of using a satiny cord around the bottle (silver grey to indicate the sparkle type??), and the J. Herbin ship logo on the bottom of the bottle (which will handily identify all my enemies when I inevitably have to smack them in the forehead with my ink bottle..?).

Like a jewel! A deadly jewel…

Whether anything has changed about the ink itself, I can’t say, but in my experience no improvements were needed. Though I have heard tell of others who have had pens get clogged, I have committed the most heinous and egregious of pen hygiene practices with the shimmery Herbin inks and experienced nary a consequence (but I do not recommend doing as I do; don’t hold me responsible if you screw up your pens). I’ve had Amethyste de l’Oural loaded in a Pelikan M205 with broad italic nib since July 5th, and the pen has started up without fail every time I take the cap off.

I had a caption here, which I’m sure was most clever and perfect, but the internet ate it and now it is lost forever, much to the detriment of society

Amethyste de l’Oural is a rich, vibrant purple, brightly saturated, leaning a hint of a bit more toward blue than red as far as purples go. Shading is good, but no sheen. I’ve piled this ink on the page to try and get it, but sheen is not there. Compare it to some of its sheeny 1670 brethren:

Note the unquestionable sheen on Rouge Hematite, Emerald of Chivor, and Caroube de Chypre

But shimmer and sparkle we’ve got in ready abundance. As with other shimmer inks, make sure you shake the bottle thoroughly (I shake until there’s no more shimmer particles on the bottom) before filling up your pen to get maximally even sparkle distribution. In a break from the 1670 inks, 1798 Amethyste de l’Oural features silver shimmer rather than gold. What I love about these sparkles in particular is that if you look closely you can see hints of other colors, pale pinks and blues among the silver.

LOOK CLOSELY! GAZE WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!!!!

This ink is another winner. It doesn’t have perhaps quite as much going on as Emerald of Chivor, but that doesn’t matter. It’s a beautiful ink in its own right. Load up your favorite broad, stub, italic, and other such vast juicy nibs with this ink and enjoy.

Diamine Shimmertastic ink, in a nutshell: almost more trouble than it’s worth.

Sparkle

In spite of owning every last one, I haven’t reviewed any of the J. Herbin 1670 inks yet. I’ve been too busy enjoying them – that company knows how to both build and live up to the hype. By the time Emerald of Chivor became available last year, I NEEDED that ink to live. I ordered a second bottle from a different distributor because the first one I’d ordered didn’t seem to be coming fast enough (even though it arrived the next day). Emerald of Chivor is life. I HAVE NO REGRETS.

It’s like staring into the cosmos

But I was not among those excited by the announcement that Diamine would be dropping a whole line of TEN shimmer-filled inks. I was psychologically spent after the satisfying fulfillment of Chivormania; I didn’t have the emotional resources to care about TEN DIFFERENT INKS that I definitely could not afford all at once. I put the whole line out of my mind, until someone at pen club (possibly Tom with all the Pelikans) brought in a bottle of Purple Pazzazz and a bottle of Red Lustre, giving away samples to try.

I thought I was making good choices

I started with Purple Pazzazz in a Lamy Vista with 1.9mm calligraphy nib, chiefly because every last J. Herbin 1670 ink has done fantastically with the Lamy feed/1.9mm nib combination. After about one sentence, the flow choked up. This Diamine stuff was definitely a different beast. I swapped on a broad nib instead, and the pen was coaxed into cooperation. Purple Pazzazz in a Lamy Al-Star with medium nib gave me no trouble. Time then to try the Red Lustre.

At least it’s a pretty mess

TWSBI mini with 1.5 stub? NOPE. Nothing but failure. A. G. Spalding Bros mini pen, the juicy one? Couldn’t even get the ink to flow to the end of the nib. Monteverde Artista Crystal? The clear feed shows exactly where the ink stops, and goes no more. In desperation (and seriously lacking in the broad nibs department of my life for some reason), I inked up my Pelikan M205 with the gigantically juicy factory italic nib – at last! Success! Delicious success!

You can see the shimmer particles settle and move in the juicy lines of ink. Just as I was about to consign this color to dip pens only, here at last a glimmer, shimmer of hope. I swapped the biggest non-stub TWSBI nib I had (a medium) onto the mini, and after some nib-flossing it works now, more or less reliably. More tests will determine if this cooperation is color based, or if I just didn’t have the right pen/nib combos for the red as I did for the purple. I’ve got the Goulet Pens Shimmertastic Sample set now, so in due time I can properly assess the entire line.

Who needs to look professional when you can be sparkly instead

On to the ink itself, once on the page – a delightful sparkle. Like writing with some form of arcane magic. Moreso than the J. Herbin 1670 inks though, the sparkles will spread all over the page, far beyond where the ink is located. Your writing takes on the appearance of a fairy sneeze when tilted to the light. I don’t know why the sparkle spreads – the particles definitely settle a little faster in the solution than the J. Herbin particles do in theirs, so perhaps that in some way has something to do with it. I haven’t used the pen in the ink bottle technique to fill anything with these inks — I think the sparkles settle too quickly for that. Shake your sample/bottle vigorously, and use a syringe to draw ink from about the halfway down or so point, and you should end up with a decent amount of sparkle and bling. And although I am irresponsible and have left these inks sitting in my pens for quite a little bit of time with no negative consequences, you should probably clean out any pens you put this ink into on a regular basis.

Pen blogger tested, King Midas approved

In spite of all the attendant frustration, the lovely look of these inks makes it worth my while. Avoid the headache and stick to dip pens with this ink, or brave the sometimes unsuccessful combinations in the quest for a perfect pen/nib/ink shimmertastic trifecta.